Clinical, Medical & Diagnostic Products


Automated Pipetting for Streamlined SARS-CoV-2 Diagnostic Testing


Integra Biosciences’ pipetting solutions are being used by renegade.bio to address the urgent need of diagnostic testing for COVID-19 in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA. The company carries out huge numbers of SARS-CoV-2 assays each day, and has chosen Integra’s automated adjustable electronic pipettes and pipetting robots to perform PCR assays faster and more cost- effectively, while retaining high degrees of sensitivity and specificity.


Renegade.bio is a public-benefit corporation, and was founded in March 2020 to make SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing more accessible to the wider population, supporting health equity goals. When setting up its workflow, the company chose to combine a decentralised approach to sample collection with automation of repetitive liquid handling tasks with Integra pipetting solutions, reducing their costs while greatly increasing productivity and still turning around assay results in as little as 12 hours.


Dr Gabriel Paulino, Co-founder and Vice President of Product Development and Innovation at renegade.bio, commented: “The ASSIST PLUS pipetting robot equipped with a VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipette is one of our main automation platforms. This has really helped us to increase our throughput, as the VOYAGER is the only solution that can automatically adjust the distance between the individual tips, allowing us to move samples between our different sample tubes and plates easily. We also use the VIAFLO 96 handheld electronic pipette for assay set-up, as it’s really useful to be able to pipette reagents into every well of a microplate at the same time.”


“We love the user interface of the Integra products. It’s so easy to program the pipettes, and these intuitive tools have made the whole assay process incredibly streamlined. All the pipetting is now automated, which helps to reduce human error and fatigue, and allows us to work around the clock at our maximum capacity of around 2000 tests a day. Integra was definitely the right solution for us, and we’ve recently invested in a MINI 96 portable electronic pipette to further streamline our workflows.”


More information online: ilmt.co/PL/qMDD 58592pr@reply-direct.com


New System Automates Dried Blood Spot Sampling and Analysis


The new Thermo Scientific Transcend DSX-1 integrated sample prep and UHPLC system eliminates disc punching typically associated with dried matrix (spot) cards, and optimises sample extraction and recovery of multiple matrices (e.g., blood, urine, serum and saliva). The new system enables laboratories performing routine analysis of drugs and other compounds to achieve substantial savings on time, labour and reagent costs compared to manual workflows. Proprietary flow-through desorption with heated capillary eliminates the need for manual, time-consuming extraction protocols and the automatic addition of an internal standard prior to the extraction minimises matrix interference. Robustness and sensitivity are enhanced through online proprietary sample cleanup and enrichment via Thermo Scientific TurboFlow technology, producing confident results.


“Toxicology laboratories play a crucial role in detecting drug use and misuse in an ongoing struggle to safeguard society against increasing numbers of substances at ever decreasing concentrations. Dried spot analysis has emerged as a key technology in this area, requiring only a small amount of sample and, therefore, minimising the user impact,” said Brad Hart, Senior Director, Analytical Vertical and Life Science Mass Spectrometry Marketing, Thermo Fisher Scientific.


Professor Mario Thevis, Director for the Center for Preventative Doping Research, German Sport University, Cologne said: “DBS analysis is the latest


tool approved by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and was introduced at this year’s Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China. In order to accommodate the specific needs associated with DBS analyses, and the considerable number of target analytes, robust, sensitive, programmable and especially automated DBS analytical options will offer critical advantages to anti-doping laboratories.”


The Transcend DSX-1 system is controlled by Thermo Scientific Aria MX software, which streamlines dried spot analysis by fully integrating all aspects of the workflow, such as: sample card handling; LC pump operation and valve switching; on-line sample clean-up; Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry methods.


The Intelligent Vision Camera ensures data integrity and enables retrospective monitoring by capturing sample traceability, chain of custody and accurate spot recognition. More information online: ilmt.co/PL/2WEL


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Syringe Pumps for Micro-fl uidic and Lab-on-a-Chip Systems


The term lab-on-a-chip refers to a system that accommodates the entire functionality of a macroscopic laboratory on a chip. The micro-fluidic chip with the size of a credit card is usually made of plastic or glass, in which channels for the transport of liquids, analytes or reactants are embedded. Biological, chemical or physical processes can take place that would otherwise only be possible in large reactors with the advantage of small volumes and low consumption of valuable chemicals and a high speed of analysis or reaction. Once a module has been designed, such chips can be produced in large numbers at a low price as a disposable product, e.g. in medical diagnostics.


The functionality of lab-on-a-chip systems is ensured by active components such as microvalves and pumps, and the pumps are needed in order to control the flow rate of liquid constantly, reproducibly and pulsation-free.


Syringe pumps are often applied if low flow rates are needed, but for long-term applications, the syringes previously had to be refilled manually. Spetec GmbH has developed a double-syringe pump in which the first syringe is emptied when the second is filled.


The photo shows the motor unit of Spetec GmbH Symax syringe pump. On the upper carrier plate, the two heads of the syringe holders with the spindle slot underneath can be seen. A quick-release device facilitates a quick replacement of both syringes.


The syringes with 5, 20 and 50 mL (made of polypropylene - PP) can be changed quickly and easily. The flow rates can be varied over a range of 6 orders of magnitude from 30 pL/s to 760 μL/s and several modules can be controlled individually. The control software enables the operation of up to 6 pumps in automatic continuous operation at the same time.


More information online: ilmt.co/PL/xxx6 58822pr@reply-direct.com


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